Spotlight Mexico: "OSO", a small sized dog with a great heart

Some of my days are so exciting that I wish I could have my thoughts written at the same time things happen to me!

This is what happened the other day when I was on my way to the Humane Society of Cozumel, a project the International Fund for Animal Welfare has been supporting for the last five years.

We were driving to the clinic where spay and neuter of pets is free and just a donation is asked in exchange. This has made a dramatic change on the stray dogs and cats in the island so instead of hundreds of animals being put down when they started, now in the hardest months there is less than 20 that are being put down, most of them because road accidents and infectious diseases.

So we, Karina HSC’s vet and me, saw a chihuahua mix by the avenue, being almost run over by cars passing by, several times, and tried to call him and hold him, but he wouldn’t come!

More cars coming…finally Karina went to look for food to try to persuade him that we were the “good guys” trying to help.

Less than five minutes passed when a scooter came in the picture, a man was driving it and the dog was so excited!

He was jumping trying to get a hug! - So maybe he likes men- I thought.

Turns out that the dog, named "Oso" had been lost for a couple of days, and Wilbert, his owner, went to look for him after a friend saw him by the road.

Fortunately Oso was not harmed.

I talked to Wilbert and tried to convince to neuter Oso so his chances of escaping decreased, also we would provide a collar and an id tag.

He answered he was to discuss it with his wife and took Oso home, little Oso was so happy, his tail was wagging all the time.

Four hours later Oso arrived at the clinic with Wilbert’s wife!

She was happy he could be neutered there, we had no space left at that moment but we managed to get him and perform his surgery as I was also at the clinic, so there were two surgeons instead of one.

It is so funny because two other people that work at the Humane Society also saw Oso but he wouldn’t come!

Finally we could all be tranquil about his final destiny.

Oso was neutered and picked up three hours later. We had visitors at the clinic, they helped with Oso’s recovery giving him love and kisses so he was really pampered...such a day in a dogs life!

Please don’t let your dogs out and no matter what have them wear a collar and id tag with your current contact information.